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Tradition and eccentricity often run hand in hand in Norfolk. Take South Creake, in the county’s north-west, for example. It’s a pretty place. Pretty quiet, too, for much of the time – a place most people just drive through on their way between Fakenham and Burnham Market or the North Norfolk coast.
If you see anyone at all it’s likely to be a couple of old chaps sitting on a bench by the roadside, watching the traffic go by; or maybe someone exercising their dog on the extensive village green.
Once a year, however, on the last Sunday in August, South Creake goes mad. It’s the day of the Great Duck Race, climax of the village’s annual fun day.
In the morning, villagers and holidaymakers gather on the green to buy raffle tickets, hunt for bargains among bric-a-brac stalls and compete for prizes. There are races and games for the kids, who can also chuck soaking wet sponges at Dad’s head.
In the afternoon the focus shifts to the banks of the little River Burn running alongside the green. At three o’clock a sackful of plastic ducks – the sort you can float in the bath – is emptied into the river, and the race is on.
This year some 500 ducks were entered, and a crowd followed on each bank as the tiny yellow figures swirled and bobbed along the 300-yard course from an upstream footbridge near the Ostrich Inn to the main river crossing on the green.
The following was fervent, for each duck had cost a £1 entry fee and there were prizes of £25, £10 and £5 at stake. The first prize went to local resident Stephen "Basher" Barrett. Events throughout the day raised nearly £1100 for the village War Memorial Institute funds.
